What is Dark Pool Flow?
Dark Pool Defined
A dark pool is a privately organized financial forum or exchange for trThe Dark Pool Feed tracks large off-exchange equity trades — also known as dark pool prints — that are executed away from the public order books of traditional exchanges like NYSE and NASDAQ. These trades are often used by institutional investors, hedge funds, and large asset managers to move size without immediately affecting pricing in market.
The Unusual Whales Dark Pool Flow feed tracks trades such as these, in real time.
Dark Pool vs. Lit
Unlike lit markets where orders are visible in real time and on-exchange, dark pools are private trading venues, also known as third-party exchanges, that allow participants to buy or sell large blocks of stock without revealing their intentions. That means the activity tracked in the Dark Pool Feed is often invisible until after the fact — but when it hits the tape, it can reveal positioning under the surface.
Dark pool trades don’t typically cause immediate price moves the way lit trades do, but they can be a powerful indicator of accumulation, distribution, or hidden interest. Some traders often utilize major dark pool transaction prices as areas of support and resistance.
Example Filter
Just like all flow and stock feeds, you can narrow down your Dark Pool Feed to display only transactions fitting criteria you set within the filters. So for example, if I want a Dark Pool feed that displays all stock transactions, excluding ETFs, Microsoft, and Tesla from the feed, a minimum size of 1500 shares, and a minimum premium of $5,000,000, I can adjust the appropriate filters and sliders therein. That filter and feed looks something like this:
